Singaporean kayaker Stephenie Chen secures silver medal at Asian Games kayak single 500m event

SINGAPORE – In a remarkable feat, Singaporean kayaker Stephenie Chen clinched a silver medal in the single 500m event, marking Singapore’s best performance at the Asian Games to date.

This achievement is a historic milestone as it is Singapore’s first silver medal in kayaking at the Asian Games.

Prior to this, the nation’s first-ever medal at the quadrennial meet was Mervyn Toh’s bronze in the K1-200m event at the 2018 edition in Palembang.

Chen’s journey to the silver medal was impressive as she earned a direct ticket to the final after finishing second in her heat on Sunday, Oct 1, despite being only the fourth-fastest among the qualifiers.

In the thrilling race on Tuesday morning (Oct 3), Chen, who had previously secured seventh, sixth, fifth, and fourth positions in the Asian Games, started strong and led for over half of the contest.

However, she was eventually overtaken by China’s Li Dongyin.

Li clocked 1:58.931, while Chen finished second with a time of 2:00.074.

The bronze medal went to Hediye Kazemi of Iran, who completed the race in 2:00.635.

Chen’s silver medal is particularly precious for her, as she had finished fourth in the K1-200m event in 2018 and narrowly missed out on bronze in another event, the K2-500m, this year.

Chen has been representing Singapore since 2009 and is a five-time Southeast Asian Games champion.

Minister of Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling extended her congratulations to Stephenie Chen via Facebook, acknowledging the significance of this achievement.

She said, “Huge congratulations to Stephenie for clinching the Silver medal in the Women’s Kayak Single 500m!

“This remarkable achievement marks her first medal in four outings at the Asian Games. Well done!”

In related news, Stephenie Chen’s teammate, Lucas Teo, secured a fifth-place finish in the K1-1000m final on Monday, before teaming up with Brandon Ooi for a sixth-place finish in the K2-500m event.